1. Croteau was from Quebec.2. Croteau's mug shot looked like a photo from 1978 of the Lab Tech (we'll call him Bruce).3. We needed a suspect.

Several problems quickly arose that made the theory implausible, beginning with Croteau's mug shot. Take one look here and you can see that Croteau was a chameleon (he looked like everyone). The big spoiler came when I actually tracked down the phone number of Bruce. By this time Croteau was on trial for the Landry murder. If I phoned and "Bruce" picked up, then the gig was up. But if I phoned and was told that "Bruce" was indefinitely indisposed? Bingo!

I phone. I'm so hoping to be told Bruce doesn't live there anymore. Phone picks up:

"Hello this is Bruce."

This was about when Kim Rossmo gave me my first piece of advice about amateur gumshoeing: